To outsource or not; city and Board of Ed evaluate options

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Waste Program Manager for the City of Norwalk Jessica palladino along with Bryan Ayers, Safety Manager with City Carting, talk about the city's Recycling project

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Waste Program Manager for the City of Norwalk Jessica palladino along with Bryan Ayers, Safety Manager with City Carting, talk about the city's Recycling project

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Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Waste Program Manager for the City of Norwalk Jessica palladino along with Bryan Ayers, Safety Manager with City Carting, talk about the city's Recycling project

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Waste Program Manager for the City of Norwalk Jessica palladino along with Bryan Ayers, Safety Manager with City Carting, talk about the city's Recycling project

To outsource or not; city and Board of Ed evaluate options

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NORWALK -- Norwalk Public Schools stands to save $330,000 next year by insourcing some special education services.

At the same time, it already has saved $182,000 this fiscal year by outsourcing custodial services at two schools and plans to continue the practice.

On Thursday evening, schools Chief Financial Officer Rich Rudl outlined next year's projected savings to the Common Council's Finance/Claims Committee as part of the committee's discussion about where to set the expenditures cap on Norwalk's unfolding 2015-16 capital budget.

The information gave committee members room for thought about the merits and drawbacks of outsourcing services.

"The main question is what's the best deal for taxpayers? From the Board of Education's perspective, they've done their analyses and they've concluded in the case of the custodial services, the interests of taxpayers are best served through outsourcing," Finance/Claims Committee Chairman Bruce I. Kimmel said Friday. "Yet at the same time, those interests are best served by insourcing when it comes to special education."

The Board of Education's requested 2015-16 operating budget calls for the establishment of an in-district special education program that would hire 22 Applied Behavioral Analysis Specialists, three Board Certified Behavioral Analysts, one additional psychologist and one additional special education teacher.

The school district currently spends $2.3 million in outsourcing Applied Behavioral Analysis Specialists and Board Certified Behavioral Analysts.

Over the years, the city has outsourced operation of its wastewater treatment plant to CH2M HILL OMI, parking management to LAZ Parking Ltd., and municipal garbage collection to City Carting & Recycling, Inc.

In the run-up to outsourcing of garbage collection, the union representing the city's garbage haulers blasted the plan as "Privatization Equals Corruption." Afterward, the union said, in effect, "We told you so."

"It was in their contract and everybody signed off on it," Local 2405 President Milton Giddiens said after City Carting didn't pickup trash in some neighborhoods over the 2013 Memorial Day weekend.

Director of Public Works Harold F. Alvord said he could not immediately calculate the savings achieved by outsourcing operation of the treatment plant and parking operations given that they occurred more than 10 years ago.

But he and other city officials are certain of the savings achieved by outsourcing trash collection.

The original City Carting contract, which began Oct. 1, 2012, and subsequent renegotiation of it in January 2013, will save the city $3.4 million by the end of this fiscal year and $20.4 million over its 10-year life, according to the city's Department of Finance.

Councilman David T. McCarthy, who as chairman of the council's Public Works Committee helped spearhead the effort, said outsourcing is prudent with services that are "not essentially governmental in nature." He counted among them trash collection and custodial services.

"By allowing for a business to leverage its knowledge of the service and marketplace, and do what it does best, while retaining quality control, the city will always do much better," McCarthy said. "In City Carting's case, they know solid-waste pick up and management. They do it as efficiently as is possible, and by negotiating the best deal possible for the city, the Director of Public Works, Mr. Alvord, has saved the city and its citizens around $20 million over the course of the contract."

McCarthy contrasted garbage collection to special education.

"Special education is very particular and personal, and there is a great deal to be saved by insourcing that function," McCarthy said. "One Norwalk teacher can do a much better job for our kids than paying private tuition for each one of them, obviously at a great savings."

Alvord, while pleased with the savings achieved through the City Carting contract, said he wouldn't recommend outsourcing snow plowing or day-to-day road repairs.

"If you're in the middle of a snow emergency, or have pot holes or general road repairs, those are things I would not want to contract out because you need to have immediate, short-term control and you can respond much more quickly and effectively with your own resources," Alvord said.

Alvord described managing the city's parking system as an area that can and was outsourced.

Under former Mayor Alex Knopp, the city created the Parking Authority and hired LAZ Parking in 2003 to manage parking operations. The changes were meant to shift the cost of parking operations from taxpayers to motorists.

Beforehand, the city was facing annual deficits as high as $600,000 in its parking system, according to Kimmel.

"We weren't able to get a handle on it -- the problem was too unwieldy for the city at the time," Kimmel said. "Now that we have a better grasp, much of the problem has been solved and we are beginning to discuss parking again. I think an option that should be put on the table is insourcing our parking."

The current contract between the city and LAZ Parking expires in 2023.

"When we approach the end of that contract, we should have a discussion, do we still need LAZ?" Kimmel said. "I don't have a conclusion, but I think it's a worthwhile discussion to have."